Interaction training – an enabler for improvement measures within the psychosocial risk assessment process
International Journal of Workplace Health Management
ISSN: 1753-8351
Article publication date: 20 May 2022
Issue publication date: 9 September 2022
Abstract
Purpose
The study objectives were to (1) identify if providing solution-focused interaction training enables managers and employees to develop and implement actions to improve their psychosocial work environment and (2) test a recontextualization of the psychosocial work environment as social structures affecting members of the workplace and verify if social interactions effectively change the local psychosocial work environment.
Design/methodology/approach
The intervention involved training managers, supervisors and employees in solution-focused interaction. This study used a controlled interrupted time-series design, with an intervention and control group (CG) and pre- and post-measurements.
Findings
The psychosocial work environment improved, indicating that the training led to better social interactions, contributing to changes in the social structures within the intervention group (IG). Collective reflection between participants in the take action phase was the key to success. The recontextualization uncovered these mechanisms.
Research limitations/implications
The present study supports a recontextualization of the psychosocial work environment as primarily decided by social structures that emerge in recurrent interactions within work teams. The same social structures also seem to be important for other features of the production system, like job performance.
Practical implications
Training designed to enable high-quality social interactions, like dialogue and collective reflection, has proven to be effective in changing social structures. Moreover, managers may need training in facilitating the collective reflection between participants. Increased focus on social interactions within work teams is suggested for future study of organizational change processes, psychosocial work environment and practical psychosocial work environment management.
Originality/value
The intervention was delivered in the preparation phase to enable an effective take action phase. Both phases are less studied in psychosocial risk assessments research. The recontextualization has never been fully used in psychosocial research.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
The authors are grateful to the employees at the host company for their time and efforts in taking part in the study; to Eric Hansen, for providing support for the data analysis; and to Robert Kerr for providing assistance to adapt the work positive profile as per the needs for this study. The authors are also very grateful to AFA Insurance for funding this work and to the peer reviewers for their valuable input, which has helped to improve this paper.
Funding: This work was supported by AFA Insurance, an organization owned by Sweden's labor market parties [grant number: 160088].
Citation
Backström, T. and Berglund, R.T. (2022), "Interaction training – an enabler for improvement measures within the psychosocial risk assessment process", International Journal of Workplace Health Management, Vol. 15 No. 5, pp. 553-571. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJWHM-02-2021-0040
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
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